Of course the right wing MAGATS are making a meal out of this. I'm surprised Trump hasn't tweeted his support for the students, but hey, the day is still young in Washington, DC.
I've watched all the videos that people are claiming absolve the school and students from any wrong-doing, but that ain't what I'm seeing. Yes, the 4 or 5 Black Hebrew guys are shouting insults at everyone who comes near, including the students, but that is what they do. Where the hell were the teachers and chaperones for the kids when they started shouting at them? Their job was to get them away from the situation - tell them to assemble somewhere further away and/or ignore them. I keep looking for any adult who might be doing that, and I'm not seeing it. So, the boys start chanting and dancing - maybe it's their school "chant," but it doesn't look nor sound like Dance of the Sugar Plum fairies, so in itself is provocative. The teachers should have stopped that shit.
So, Nathan Phillips and other Native Americans who were conducting a prayer ritual nearby approached to try and diffuse the tension. I saw and heard boys continuing to whoop and shout, make mocking gestures, and again, the adults with the school party should have stepped in - both to tell the boys to shut up and show respect, and then to say a quick "thanks" to Phillips and the others for their help before hustling the kids away so they wouldn't get into any further trouble.
The school claims the students weren't being intimidating and it was Phillips who was being provocative. Even if you give benefit of the doubt and believe the boys didn't
intend to intimidate, dozens of white teenage boys - some shouting, some gesticulating, some wearing hats associated with a far right political movement - surrounding an elderly Native American man certainly LOOKS intimidating, and from Phillips account, he felt intimidated by them. Even if you also give benefit of a doubt that they students were too young to understand the impression they might give
where the fuck were the adults who were supposed to be responsible for them?
Seems the school, families and their supporters are doubling down on their line that the students were innocent, and are campaigning on social media to take legal action against journalists and anyone else who said anything to the contrary. All the usual right wing commentators are wailing and gnashing their teeth about the nasty liberal media's effort to smear the poor innocent boys and ruin their future. Snowball's chance in hell of that, so it's purely for intimidation. Others are spreading lies about Nathan Phillips, because, of course they will do that.